


And white the fading forests grow

by Wolfsheart



Series: Holiday Prompt Series [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Jewish Character, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Domestic Fluff, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Holidays, Jewish Character, Jewish Holidays, M/M, Multi, Yule
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:14:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28437450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfsheart/pseuds/Wolfsheart
Summary: When they wanted to get away from the bustle of the city and the drama of their teams, Loki, Emma, Kate Pryde, and Bobby Drake take Tony Stark up on the offer of his out of the way cabin in the middle of the New England woods to enjoy Hanukkah, Christmas, and Yule.  Kate takes her new girlfriend, Danni the tattoo artist, and Bobby brings his boyfriend Christian Frost to join them and share in the fun of the escape.
Relationships: Bobby Drake/Christian Frost, Emma Frost/Loki, Emma Frost/Loki/Tony Stark, Emma Frost/Tony Stark, Kate Pryde/Danni the tattoo artist, Kitty Pryde/Danni the tattoo artist, Loki/Tony Stark
Series: Holiday Prompt Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2082990
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	And white the fading forests grow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kleenexwoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kleenexwoman/gifts).



> From the [Holiday Prompt list on Tumblr](https://teadrinkingwolfgirl.tumblr.com/post/635183538254282752). 
> 
> _from kleenexwoman: Holiday prompts: 8, 11, 20. FUCK MY SHIT UP_  
>  (8. Frost, 11. Fairy Lights, 20. The death of the sun)

If anyone had told Kate Pryde years ago that she'd wind up spending a whole holiday season at a quaint little (little being relative) cabin in the New England wilderness instead of the Xavier School or any other large gathering of mutants, she'd have laughed them right out of her face. If anyone had said she'd be spending that season with Emma and Christian Frost, Bobby Drake, and Loki, she'd have noped herself away and never speak to that person again. 

And yet...

"Kate, explain your lovely little candle tradition again, please?" Loki requested from where he fussed with the 12' Douglas Fir, trying to turn it to the perfect angle for decorating. He glanced over his shoulder to see the look of surprise on the spritely brunette's face. "Robert attempted to explain it, but he's so busy making eyes at Christian that I think he missed details." 

Bobby pouted from where he sat at the table with his boyfriend, Kate, and her girlfriend – okay, so they'd only been dating a couple of weeks, but Kate thought she was important enough to bring out to Loki's cabin in the middle of nowhere for the winter holidays – Danni. He reached out with the hand that Christian wasn't holding, and he gave the wooden dreidel a spin. 

"I didn't miss details, Loki. I just...well, my parents weren't exactly orthodox. Or even practicing. Jewish stuff was on a need to be convenient basis with them. Or when my grandmothers visited, so it wasn't as ingrained in me as it was Kate," Bobby defended himself. He blushed a little when Christian lifted his hand and kissed it. 

Loki walked over, rolling his shoulders until they popped. His eyes fell on the dreidel as it spun and spun, finally slowing down to land on a character he didn't quite recognize. Well, he could read it, but he didn't understand its meaning. It wasn't as if he hadn't encountered many of Earth's cultures over the centuries he was alive and popping down here for visits, but he hadn't blanketed himself in most of them other than the more northern ones that based their religious practices off of what they'd learned about Asgard. 

"Alright, so what does that mean?" Loki asked, nodding toward the toppled dreidel. "Robert spun it, so what does he...gain or...lose, I'm assuming is the object of the game?"

Kate just smirked a little even as Bobby's pout grew.

"It landed on Shin. It means to 'put in'. He has to put pieces of his gelt...his chocolate coin...into the middle. Which means that the three of us have a chance to win it." 

Loki reached out for the shiny gold 'coins' that were stacking up at the center of the table. His hand hovered over them, however, and he looked from Kate to Bobby.

"May I?" he asked, hearing Frigga's voice in his head to not touch without consent. When both Bobby and Kate nodded, he plucked one of the coins from the middle and studied it. "And this is chocolate? Inside this gold..." 

Emma walked closer and set her hand on Loki's lower back, stroking across his spine with her thumb. 

"It's not real gold, darling. It's gold foil wrapped around chocolate," she told him with an indulgent smile. 

"Ohhh...that is a charming tradition," Loki remarked. "I do like chocolate, and dressing it up as a treasure when it is one makes it even more fun, doesn't it?" He set the coin back onto the table right where he found it then wrapped an arm around Emma's shoulders, snuggling her against his side. "And this is a holiday like Yule...or Christmas?"

So they didn't just hover, Loki summoned one of the other chairs close, and he eased into it and tugged Emma into his lap. He didn't miss the looks of surprise that the two X-Men snuck to each other. 

"No, it's...well..." Bobby looked to Kate for help. "Sorry, Loki. I'm just really bad with all the details. I can make the latkes, I can light the candles, and I can play dreidel and apparently lose all my gelt, but it just wasn't the biggest of traditions in my house," he apologized and squeezed Christian's hand back.

"Sweetheart, I don't think you're offending our host by not being Mr. Trivia," the elder Frost sibling said sweetly and stood up to fill crystalline punch cups full of homemade egg nog for everyone. 

Emma made herself quite comfortable in Loki's lap. The only one missing from their little holiday away from everyone else had assured her that he was on his way, but for the moment, she was content with this motley family she'd somehow managed to accumulate. Many times throughout her life, each family she'd claimed had built up into a monument she could trust enough to be vulnerable around only to crumble under the weight of betrayal and indifference. Even now, she worried that letting these few, these happy few into her heart lest it shatter her heart like that diamond bullet. 

"Kate, you grew up in the faith with all the traditions and background," Emma replied in a tone more gentle than the sassy Queen was known for. 

Kate set the dreidel in motion before standing up to take two of the cups from Christian, one of which she offered to Danni before touching a kiss to the top of her girlfriend's blonde crown. As she reclaimed her chair, the dreidel stopped again and fell over, making Bobby crow a little as it once more fell onto _Shin_. She stuck out her tongue at him and tossed a chocolate coin into the middle of the table. 

"Yes, I did. I mean, my family wasn't Orthodox, but we kept the holidays and most Sabbaths...when Dad wasn't working late at the office. I went to Hebrew school. I think I learned even more from Erik," she explained and set her cup on the table out of the way. 

"Thank you, Christian," Loki stated as he took one of the cups from Emma's brother. He took a sip and let the thick eggy liquid sit on his tongue for a moment before he swallowed, tasting the bourbon and nutmeg keenly. "This is...very strange but delicious," he added. "If you'd rather not explain, I understand. I'm just curious as your world has so many mystical options to choose from." Then those verdant eyes of his sparkled with the mischief he was known for. As if tempting her, he added, "I'll show you mine, Kate, if you show me yours." 

"Hey now," Danni pretended to sound jealous and made a dramatic show of slinging her arm around Kate's shoulders. She kissed her cheek then plucked up the dreidel to take her turn. While the wooden toy spun and spun, she gestured between Loki and Kate. "By all means, babe, lay it all out on the table. If nothing else, I want to learn about all the shiny pagan holiday stuff from Asgard," the tattoo artist stated before turning her eyes to what her prize or predicament would be. 

Kate met Loki's and Emma's eyes and shrugged a shoulder. 

"Fair enough. I'll tell you all about it, if nothing more than to impress my lady," she replied and gave her girlfriend a flirty smile. 

The dreidel stopped and fell over. It landed on a boxy looking letter without a bottom. 

"That looks very similar to Uruz," he stated. "The rune of strength," came the codicil. 

"It's _hay_ ," Kate said. "It means that Danni gets to take half the pot. That is what's at the center of the table. Go for it, babe" she explained and encouraged her girlfriend. 

While Danni collected her portion of the loot and Christian reached out to spin the dreidel, Kate started into the history of the Jewish rebellion against the Greek and Syrian oppressors, but she became more animated when she spoke about the rededication of the second temple in Jerusalem and how there was not enough olive oil to burn all seven candles of the Menorah, but they lit the first anyway. It was a portion of the history that she and Erik Lensherr discussed most often, especially because she saw the hope out of oppression, and liked to think that she reminded him of that to soothe his cynical heart. 

"And when they thought they only had enough oil for one day, it burned for eight days," Kate finished. 

She took a drink of her egg nog and looked at the others. The dreidel had been completely forgotten, even though Christian's spin had earned him the other half of the pot, while everyone listened to Kate the Storyteller. Blinking over their rapt attention, Kate cleared her throat. 

"So, now you know about Hanukkah, Loki," she mused, smirking at the way the King of Jotunheim huggled his arms around Emma and buried his face against her shoulder. 

Loki eased Emma from his lap and carefully set his cup onto the table where it wasn't in anyone's way. He walked around until he stood between Kate and Danni, leaned down, and kissed Kate's cheek. 

"Thank you for explaining," he told her in the tenderest of voices. 

And for good measure, he touched his lips to Danni's cheek. 

"And welcome to this strange little family," Loki replied at her look of confusion before he made his way back to the tree to don its finishing touches. 

Bobby looked down at the center of the table and the dreidel and finally nudged Christian to point out that he'd won the rest of the loot, but without warning, his boyfriend tilted his head and delivered a sound kiss to his lips instead. Something that Bobby wasn't going to turn down at all. 

"I'd say get a room, you two, but you'd just tell Danni and me to do the same," Kate teased as she looked at her meager winnings, knowing that her girlfriend would likely share a chocolate coin or two. 

"Besides, you both have a room here, Katherine," Emma stated as she, too, stood up and finished her egg nog. She took hers and Loki's cups to the kitchen to set in the sink then walked over to join one half of her significant others at the tree. She set her hands on his back; she'd already picked up on a little tension before she couched his strained shoulder blades. 

" _What has you worried, darling?_ " she asked mind-to-mind so as not to concern the young ones. 

" _Oh, you know. Thinking that Anthony should've been here by now. Pepper assured me that she wasn't keeping him any longer than necessary. Otherwise, he would've driven her mad,_ " Loki responded the same and tilted his head when Emma rested her chin on his shoulder. He touched his lips to hers then went back to adding shimmery crystalline ornaments to the branches of the tree. 

Kate and Bobby watched Emma with Loki. Of course, Christian would recognize a more settled demeanor to his sister than years past, but it was truly the former two mutants who could see more of a difference because they'd lived through her pining over Scott. While Danni and Christian headed into the kitchen to wash up and to check on the slow-roasting prime rib in the oven that they'd all been smelling since noon, Kate leaned closer to speak to Bobby where they wouldn't be heard. 

"Can you believe that our White Queen is so happy? With Loki?" 

"And Tony Stark," Bobby concluded. "It's weird, Kate, but...I don't know. Seems right. More right than...all the rest." He shoved a piece of unwrapped gelt into his mouth then offered one of his few left to Kate. 

* * *

Another hour and a half later, they all stood outside the 'cabin', which was actually more elegant and upscale than the term 'cabin' would imply. Snow dusted their boots, and they were all wrapped warmly in layers of shirts and coats, scarves wrapped around their necks, and beanies covering their heads and ears. Kate held onto Danni's hands, and Christian was snuggled with his back to Bobby's chest. 

Of course, the cold didn't bother Bobby at all; just as it didn't affect Loki now that he'd come to grudgingly accept the benefits of his Jotun biology underneath the Aesir glamor he continued to wear. 

"What are we looking at again, Loki?" Christian was the one to ask. "I mean, the snow on the trees is beautiful. The snow...as far as our eyes can see is lovely, but...we're just standing out here staring at...well, I'm not sure." 

Loki peeked over Emma's head at the others, making sure they all would have the best view of the horizon. Then his longing gaze fell on the driveway again and the car that had yet to appear. 

"Soon, Christian, you'll see. It is, after all, the Winter Solstice," Loki explained and nodded to where the sun was just beginning its descent toward the horizon, turning much of the scenery in the distance into silhouette. "The longest night of the year. I believe in your Iceland, the word for it is Vetrarsólstöður, which is very close to what it is on Asgard." In fact, Loki repeated the word for Winter Solstice in the language he'd been raised with, and it sounded nearly identical to the Icelandic term. "In our tradition, as in many of yours dating before the influence of Christianity, it is the death of the sun through the coldest months of the year," he added. 

"I have several friends who are Asatruar...and plenty who are Wiccan of some variety, and that's pretty much how they celebrate it, too," Danni announced then kissed Kate's hands through her gloves. 

Just as the sun dipped down a little further, and Emma leaned closer into Loki's side to comfort his worries, a cherry red SUV of the newest models not even out on the market yet for public purchase, no less stylish than the Audi R8 Spyder of the same color, pulled up to the cabin and stopped just behind all the other cars. The lights cut out, and the door opened and slammed closed before a figure dressed all in black and red ran over to the group gathered in the snow. 

"I didn't miss it, did I? Bambi, tell me I didn't miss your thing," Tony asked and nearly pleaded, his voice catching in his throat as the thought of missing his S.O.'s holiday moment tore into him. "Sorry I wasn't here soon. I had to stop for the extra food and cake and..." 

"Anthony, shush," Emma scolded gentle and reached out a hand to the newcomer. 

Just as Loki did, and Tony rushed over, giving the others a polite but perfunctory greeted as he set his hands into his lovers' and happily let them fold him into them. 

"You didn't miss it, ástin mín," answered Loki in a hushed tone. "It's just started." 

And together, the bundles of lovers watched as the humongous fire-orange sun lowered herself to the horizon and below until she was all gone, leaving in her wake a blanket of black sky and twinkling stars and the first quarter moon that smiled on all of them like the Cheshire Cat. 

At that moment, while they all held still and silenced in the last moments of the sun and first moments of the longest night of the year, the trees around the cabin appeared to shake away their snow cloaks, and bright white-gold and green fairy lights sparkled into existence. Everyone's gasps of surprise made Loki smile, and the Trickster – this fallen prince of Asgard and forgotten prince of Jotunheim – felt a longing that he'd ached to be fulfilled at last find its way home. 

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Loreena McKennitt's "Snow" on _To Drive the Cold Winter Away (1987)_ and _Songs for Winter Gardens (1995)_ , and again on _A Midwinter Night's Dream (2008)_.


End file.
